Simca Concept

The one and only Simca concept roadster was designed by Virgil Exner Jr. for his Master's thesis at Notre Dame. Built on a 1950 Fiat chassis procured with the help of Dual-Ghia engineer Paul Farago, the car used Simca mechanical pieces and was wrapped in a streamlined, finned fiberglass body fabricated by Exner, Jr. himself at the Dual-Ghia assembly plant. It debuted in the April 1959 issue of Road & Track magazine and was shown by Simca to the public at the Paris International Motor Show later that same year. Later the car was sold to a Chrysler dealer and, in 1965, was bought by inventor/builder and Exner associate Beau Hickory, who added the panoramic Opel windscreen and central cockpit arch. Years after selling it, in 1984 Mr. Hickory found the Simca Special in a state of neglect and repurchased the car, which by then was powered by a 1.2 L 4-cylinder Datsun B210 engine. Hickory restored the Simca Special and drove it for many years around San Francisco.